Storybook ending? Rescued writer gets girl and sets sail

Michael Hurley was rescued from his storm-battered sailboat by the Maine Maritime Academy training ship in 2015. Hurley, a novelist, has completed a 7,000-mile sail that will be capped off with a wedding in London. Associated Press/Michael Hurley via AP

A novelist who was twice rescued at sea has sailed 7,000 trouble-free miles and envisions a storybook ending to his journey.

Michael Hurley is completing a voyage from France to the Caribbean to North America with a first mate who is engaged to be his wife. Then he’s embarking on a new adventure by putting his boat into storage, getting married and moving to England.

The 60-year-old Hurley, who sold his North Carolina law firm so he could sail and write, has traveled far since he was plucked from his storm-battered sailboat by the student crew of the Maine Maritime Academy training vessel in 2015. It was the second time he had been rescued and lost his boat.

His wanderlust remained unfulfilled, and he soon bought a final sailboat, signaling his intentions by naming it Nevermore.

He found love while in the United Kingdom writing “The Passage,” a book that drew from his experience of being rescued. His fiancee, Jill Gormley, of London, said she had never been sailing before meeting him. Her introduction was a four-week sail to St. Lucia.

“We didn’t have a single argument in 28 days,” Gormley said, despite cramped quarters, canned food and an early bout of seasickness. The challenge, the 56-year-old Gormley said, was overcoming fear.

“I wasn’t bored. We chatted, played guitar, watched dolphins. Everything was new and exciting. The challenge was just not to be scared and trust that we were not going to sink,” she said. “It was coming to terms with the vastness of the ocean.”

“If there was any flaw in the relationship, it was going to be revealed then,” Hurley said. “We came out of it confident that we got along and were right for each other.”

For Hurley, it was supposed to be a round-the-world adventure. But he is cutting it short after two years and 7,000 miles in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

He said he met his goal of crossing an ocean, and he’s ready for a break from sailing. The journey ends June 15 in Oriental, North Carolina, where Nevermore will be stored.

Nate Gandy, captain of the Maine Maritime Academy training vessel, said he’s happy that Hurley was successful in crossing the ocean. “It takes more than luck to make a trans-Atlantic trip like that,” Gandy said in an email.

Hurley and Gormley are eager to marry at a yacht club on the Thames River in London in October. They will be semi-retired, and Hurley will continue writing. The budding novelist has written a half-dozen books.

The Maryland native is planning a memoir, “The Leap.” The title comes from the American philosopher John Burroughs, who proclaimed: “Leap and the net will appear.”

Hurley has taken that to heart.

“If you open yourself up to new experiences, they will lead to new opportunities,” he said, “but if you fear constantly that you have to have a plan and a budget and a bankroll, and everything has to be laid out in advance, then you miss out on a lot of the serendipity of life.”

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